Relax Your Way to a Healthy Weight

"I just don't recognize myself anymore," said Barbara during our first meeting. "I can't see myself inside my physical body, but I don't recognize who I've become either. I used to be more fun and liked myself better. Food is my solace, and it shows."

Millions of Americans feel just like Barbara.

We've all heard about the obesity epidemic, wherein nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and one-third of us are clinically obese. All our extra weight is not just a cosmetic inconvenience, but increases our risk for diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, some cancers, and even early death.

What's going on? Just look around. Our modern environment, filled with junk foods and empty calories, pushes us toward weight gain. At the same time we are inundated with media messages that suggest we are doomed if we aren't model thin. Living in our American culture and maintaining a healthy weight can seem mutually exclusive.

A growing body of science tells us it doesn't have to be that way.

Did you ever think that simply relaxing in meditation or having a gentle yoga practice could help you find peace in the war on weight? Scientists and yoga practitioners are finding it so. Yoga is multi-tasker. It provides stress management, moderate physical activity, and its philosophical framework gives us a much-needed guide to a moderate lifestyle.

Yoga originated in India, and can be traced as far back as 5,000 BC. The word yoga comes from the Sankrit (an ancient language) root word "yuj", which means to bind, join, and concentrate one's attention. It also means unions or communion.

While yoga in America today is often only thought of as the physical practice (asana in Sanskrit), the full practice of yoga encompasses all aspects of your life including your mental attitude, lifestyle choices, how you spend your time and energy, and philosophical study and ritual. The essence of asana practice is simultaneous conscious physical movement, attunement to breath, and observation of sensation. So, your mind and body re-learn how to work together.

Meditation is one aspect of yoga, and is a process of quieting the physical body and the mind. Yoga scholar Georg Feurerstein, PhD, describes meditative absorption (dhyana) as the state of deep concentration in which an internalized object fills the entire space of consciousness. An example might be to focus on your breath, observing its rhythm, temperature, and the sensations you feel as you watch its journey into and out of your body. There is no loss of lucidity, but your sense of wakefulness may intensify even as your awareness of your external environment fades.

A steady yoga practice can help you to clarify internal (what you feel in your heart) vs. external (consumer-media generated) values. It can help you to develop the skills to differentiate between reality (that you are a divine being) and delusion (that there's something deeply wrong with you that can be corrected by achieving cultural norms of beauty). And it gives you a physical context for emotional work. All told, it provides useful tools for the challenging personal transitions around eating, self-care and weight. As you develop your practice and become more familiar with your internal cues, you may become less influenced by the external values of beauty and excessive thinness projected in the media. You'll be inoculated!

Many national health organizations feature moderation in their guidelines, but are light on the how-to's of achieving a moderate lifestyle in our anything-but-moderate culture. In yoga philosophy moderation is not a passive state, but is more akin to "standing in the fire" between the two beckoning poles of excess and deprivation. The moderate yogini is no passive risk-avoider, but is a highly skilled and strong-willed warrior. The practice of yoga and meditation may assist the development of mindfulness during mealtimes, aiding awareness of portion sizes, food preparation, and eating speed.

Yoga is a vehicle for training your mind to think clearly, calmly, and kindly. That journey of exploring your mind's ways occurs within your physical body. Learning to hear and interpret your body's messages can help you recognize and discern the physical sensations of emotion, stress, and disease. This ability to reconnect to sensation is in essence the mind-body connection. It can profoundly change your life.

And it's the reason why coupling nutrition with yoga is an excellent way to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Yoga and meditation may not be useful in all situations of weight management. You must freely commit to regular practice - even if its just 5 or 10 minutes each day to receive the benefits. If this sounds like a good fit for you, however, these practices can offer a mental paradigm shift and the gentle physical activity that may uniquely support healthy attitudes about weight, eating, and self-care.

After a few therapeutic sessions, Barbara (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) responded to a few minor lifestyle adjustments:

"My weight has changed a little, but what's really changed is the way I think." She said, "I'm not so hard on myself, and it feel right now to take better care of myself. Before, I thought that was selfish. I love my breathing practice, and I take a little break and relax a few times through the day. Such little changes, but they've made a world of difference for my life."

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